Rich features will allow Voyager to compete with iPhone

Saturday

The latest release from Verizon Wireless, the Voyager, is intended to compete with the Apple iPhone, a tall order for an upstart smartphone from LG.

The latest release from Verizon Wireless, the Voyager, is intended to compete with the Apple iPhone, a tall order for an upstart smartphone from LG.

Although the new Verizon phone can’t quite top the iPhone’s overall coolness factor, the revolutionary device had months of fawning press coverage, it is a pretty cool phone in its own right.

Verizon loaned the Rockford Register Star an LG Voyager to test out its features, and there were plenty. In fact, in the manufacturer’s effort to take on the monolithic iPhone, it threw just about every available toy onto the device. Besides the prerequisite Web browser, camera and text-messaging capabilities, there’s a GPS navigator, an MP3 player and a video service that allows access to television shows, but more on that one later.

To do a quick side-by-side comparison, I had dinner with a friend who owns an iPhone. The Voyager is narrower than the iPhone, but thicker and heftier to make room for its hidden keyboard.

Apple’s hot phone redefined the user interface with its intuitive touchscreen, so it’s no surprise that LG debuts its own touchscreen with the Voyager. Although iPhone’s screen is superior with its fingertip zoom feature, the Voyager adds one nice innovation: The screen vibrates ever so slightly when you press a button. I liked this feature because it confirms that you’ve hit a key, although I suspect some users would find it annoying.

But the best interface for the phone is its QWERTY keyboard and it’s one major advantage over the iPhone. I spent most of my time on the phone with it flipped open, typing furiously. I’m nearly addicted to text messaging, but it’s maddening to enter our 26-letter Phoenician alphabet on a nine-button keypad.

Another feature I really liked was the camera because I have a photogenic 4-year-old son. Voyager puts a respectable two-megapixel digital camera into the phone. It can also shoot video in 30-second clips. The shutter is on the side and the lens on the back, so you hold the phone horizontally to shoot photos. With the 2.8-inch screen working as a viewfinder, it feels like you’re using a regular camera, which is a big advantage over most camera phones.

The Voyager has plenty of music capabilities, but I was annoyed to find that a standard headphone jack won’t work on the phone. You have to buy a special one.

However, the phone is stereo Bluetooth-enabled, so you can listen to music over wireless headphones, a feature that the iPhone inexplicably lacks.

It’s also got dual speakers, so even without headphones you can get stereo sound. A microSD card jack allows you to store up to 8 GB on removable media. It can play MP3s, as well as wma and aac files, all of which you can download directly to the phone.

The phone also gives you access to the V Cast network, Verizon’s video service. You can watch streaming clips of television, music videos and Web video, or download and store them. The problem? Downtown Rockford isn’t in the coverage area yet, so I was unable to access the service while at work. Dang. And I was hoping to watch Seinfeld reruns at my desk while informing suspicious bosses that I was “working.”

The GPS navigator was great fun, but a little buggy. Using the navigator for step-by-step driving directions worked fine, but trying to find your location on a map was troublesome. While sitting in the News Tower at 99 E. State St., the device told me I was alternately at 338 Madison St., 926 N. Church St., and somewhere on Sixth Street toward Broadway.

The manufacturer claims the battery can handle four hours of straight use or 20 days of standby. For me, this worked out to almost 48 hours of pretty intense use as I put the phone through its paces by checking e-mail in the drive-through, navigating to my home with GPS and sending scores of text messages to anyone I could think of.

All in all, the Voyager is an impressive phone for users who want a little of everything and are willing to pay for it. Right now, they’re available for $299 with a two-year contract. It’s rich with features, and definitely competitive with the much-hyped iPhone.

Staff writer Nate Legue may be reached at 815-987-1346 or nlegue@rrstar.com.